There is definitely a connection between the two, I can feel it each time the weather takes a wrong turn. Neuropathy is a nerve damage that can be caused by various conditions; mine is due to the type 2 diabetes. Lately I have noticed that my feet became extremely sensitive to cold; it’s not that I can’t deal with it, but I am just not used to. On top of that, I feel numbness in the toes and heels and anywhere in between, especially on my bad days. The nerve pain joins in, mostly in the morning and of course, arthritis. I keep a bottle of pain pills by the bed but am trying not to take them. Am really trying because I hate meds in general as I am convinced that (sometimes) they can do more harm than good, especially in the long run.

Back to the neuropathy. There are some theories to the effect that worsening of neuropathy in response to the cold weather can be due to the reduction of blood flow as well as muscle tightening which in turn pulls on the nerves thus bringing up all that pain and discomfort. I however take this with a grain of salt. To me this sounds like an attempt to explain it away. Just another opinion. So why my neuropathy goes bad with the weather change even if I am indoors, and my place is always warm as I can turn the heat up as much as I want to? Aha, that’s a good question.

Actually, it tends to get worse not only in response to a cold weather but also when a rain or a storm is coming. This has to do with atmospheric pressure, sometimes also called barometric pressure. To put it simply, when it rains, atmospheric pressure drops.

Arthritis Foundation reports a study conducted by Tufts University in 2007. It established a relationship between barometric pressure, temperature, precipitation and arthritis pain. When both barometric or atmospheric pressure and the temperature drop low especially accompanied by precipitation, arthritis pain gets worse, although researchers aren’t sure why. From my observations, similar thing happens with neuropathy as well as a few other conditions. Such as for example, high blood pressure. Now this starts making sense.

AccuWeather has coined a term for this occasion, Arthritis Index. Not neuropathy index which is possibly for the reason that “arthritis” is easier to understand, while “neuropathy” involves an extra piece of an explanation what the heck this means in the first place.

And guess what, today’s forecast is all about rain. I am yet to see it as so far all we’re having is a cloudy sky. My neuropathy has been acting up somewhat but not too bad. And my morning fasting number was 99 which is super normal for me.